


Episode Eleven:  The Return of Ultra Magnus

by keirajo



Series: Transformers: Star Voyager [12]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 17:36:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15442299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keirajo/pseuds/keirajo
Summary: A return to Cybertron.  The launch of a new adventure.  Let's go!





	Episode Eleven:  The Return of Ultra Magnus

**Author's Note:**

> This was honestly the hardest time coming up with a title yet. I've gone through about seven titles having "return" and "chaos" in them. But then, one night while I was trying to fall asleep--the nod to a title from the original t.v. series......it just worked absolutely perfect!

**_ Episode Eleven:  The Return of Ultra Magnus _ **

 

 

            “ ** _Unicron_**?!”  Drift gasped.  He reached over and flicked a few switches on his console to get the scanners to show an overhead view.  He routed it to the forward screen of the bridge on the ship as they waited for the engines to warm up to full activity.  “The Chaos-Bringer……… _here at Fortress_ …………”  the swordsmech whispered, anxiety and fear rushing through his systems.

            The massive planet hung just outside of Fortress’ orbit area.  It was grey with some vivid bits of orange, as well as an orange ring around it.   There was an orange, circular area near the center meridian of the planet and it appeared to be……… _opening_???

            Hot Rod was still trembling in Blurr’s arms as they sat down together in the large captain’s chair of the bridge.  The young blue mech murmured soothing little things to his best friend, lightly nuzzling his helm and stroking his backstrut.  Blurr glanced at the forward viewscreen—so _that_ was the monster that Hot Rod had been seeing in his dreams?  But where was the _other one_?   That bulky purple mech………?

            While Hot Rod had not spoken of his dreams in detail to neither Magnus nor Drift—he _had_ told Blurr.  The flame-colored mech _always_ told Blurr _everything_ , even the things he would never, ever tell his lovers.

            “Override is giving the go-ahead signal on the engines,” Drift said, firmly, glancing briefly back at Hot Rod and Blurr before looking over at Magnus.

            “Let’s do the quantum jump once we get past orbit and that………… _thing_ ,” Magnus responded, completely focused on getting them out of anywhere near Fortress and Unicron as quickly as possible.

            The ship lifted away from the surface of Fortress slowly, but gained speed as it headed for the skies.   The maw of Unicron was opening further and showed a massive circle of spikes around it.   Very quickly, the ship broke orbit and away from Fortress’ gravity.

            “ _Initiating quantum jump_!”  Magnus called, also announcing it over comm-link to everyone on the ship.

            There was a brief jerking motion to the ship as it quantum jumped once, rested a few moments in random space to double-check Cybertron’s coordinates, then took a second jump to land outside the orbit of a silver planet.   From a greater distance it looked silver with deep canyons and sharply pointed towers, but lower in the orbit as the ship was, they could see how ravaged and tarnished the surface was—as it hung below them. 

            Magnus felt his Spark slow in his chest………….Cybertron was **_ravaged_**.  _His birth-world_ …….

            The **_war_** had done this.

            “Magnus?”  Drift asked, looking over at him.  The younger swordsmech saw the aching posture within the older mech’s frame.

            “I hope _someone’s_ down there,” Magnus finally managed to say.  He pressed a button to activate a communications line on the old council’s primary frequency.  “Cybertron command, this is Ultra Magnus if Sentinel Prime’s elite Voyager Class unit—please respond.”

            Everyone waited quietly.  Hot Rod finally got up and walked over to the piloting station.  He wrapped his arms around Drift’s shoulders for a brief hug, then went over to Magnus and completely draped himself over his guardian’s shoulders.  His grey servos rested lightly on the decorative glass paneling on Magnus’ chestplate.

            “Hey……..would you go and get the case with my armour from the engine room?”  Magnus murmured, tilting his head just enough to rub the edge of his facial shield against Hot Rod’s upper arm.  With his other hand, he reached up a servo to rub his young lover’s helm.  “I’d better be set to _prove_ who I am……..”

            “ _’Kay_ ,” Hot Rod murmured, planting a hasty kiss on Magnus’ helm before he stood up and left, with Blurr following him.

            Shortly after the two young best friends left the bridge, the communicator crackled to life.

            “Unknown vessel, this is Autobot Command in Iacon, forgive the delay in response,” a lightly toned voice responded—it sounded like a youth trying to be very serious.   “We just relayed your name to Optimus Prime and he’s given you clearance to land in Iacon, but you _will_ be met by security on the platform.”

            “Thank you, Autobot Command………we will make preparations to land shortly.  Our pilot, Drift, shall need proper landing coordinates from you,” Magnus responded, firmly.

            Hot Rod returned to the bridge, chatting with Blurr, as he handed the silver case to Magnus.  The old soldier noted that while the flame-colored mech’s mood appeared to be lighter, there was still a lot of anxiety permeating the closely-held field.

            “Well, here we go……….after four million years,” the older blue-and-white mech murmured, kneeling and unlocking the case.  There was a burst of static and a long hiss of compressed air released.  The compression field around the interior case shattered and familiar red-white-and-blue armour spilled out of it.  Magnus straightened it up to a standing posture and walked around it in an apprising circle.

            “ ** _That_** ………..was wicked-awesome!”  Hot Rod laughed, grinning over at Blurr.

            “It’s been streamlined a bit with the upgrade.  The chest and waist look a little slimmed down,” Magnus murmured, walking around to the back of the tall armour and tilted the helm up off of the skull to input the open code for his Voyager Armour.  There was a sharp hiss and several clicks and, then, the back portion of the armour split apart.  Magnus poked around inside to make sure all the plugins looked the same and he’d still be compatible with it.  It _looked_ the same, but now the interface array plugins made him a bit nervous……….

            “Gonna keep putting it off…….or are you _finally_ gonna put it on, Mags?”  Hot Rod chuckled, folding his arms over his chest and grinning at his lover and guardian.

            “I do admit I _am_ hesitant, but………if this Optimus Prime really _was_ once Orion Pax, he’ll recognize my Voyager Armour,” Magnus said softly, reaching down to fold open the shin panels on his legs, baring plugin adaptors.   What the old soldier _didn’t_ say to them all………he really didn’t want to upset this other mech, as he was well aware his original frame was very similar to Orion Pax’s Spark-brother’s frame.  After opening his shin panels, he folded back the plating on his forearms, then he folded back the plating of his chest.  They all briefly saw Magnus’ vivid teal-colored Spark before he climbed into the armour.

            As it snapped shut around his frame, the plugins drove into his arms, legs and chest……then finally into his interface array, which he’d only opened, _just_ as he was climbing in to the armour, for modesty’s sake.   He winced at the force of the new plugins and felt like squirming at how penetrative the interface array plugins were to him.  It had been so long since he last wore this armour and he felt………… _excessively sensitive_ to it.

            _::Mags?   Mags……..you okay?::_   Hot Rod’s voice crackled through the static bursts over the comm-link in the old soldier’s head.

            Magnus was _overflooded_ with sensory information as his original frame and the armour swapped data at an ultra-swift rate.  He was receiving a very frustrating “double-vision” of his HUD while the synchronization was occurring.  This led to half the messages being listed as error messages, which he could only actually read just one of them, mentioning an overcharge flooding the links between frame and armour during the synchronization.

            Magnus tried to respond, but his comm-link output apparently wasn’t functioning yet.  His vocalizer was also making weird static bursts, so he sent a ping to Hot Rod—using a glyph message.  That way his young lover could let them know he was okay, just that full synchronization would take a little while longer.   At least he had really _hoped_ his message got sent………..!

            _::Okay.  Ping me again if you need something.  Drift is going to take his time to slowly put us down and hopefully your systems will be all right by the time we land,::_ Hot Rod’s comm-linked voice said softly, with warmth and fondness in it.

            Magnus sent an apologetic glyph, which his young lover returned with a glyph of love.

            The twin HUD readings were bothering him the most.  Why was his HUD not synchronizing between frame and armour?   Almost all of the rest of his systems had finally synched up and system checks were finally running.  But Magnus couldn’t read most of the messages from the system checks, due to the double HUD display behind his optics.

            _::Drift says I should take you into the corner and we should frag.  Blurr’s kinda agreeing with him,::_ Hot Rod’s warm voice laughed inside his head.  _::But **seriously,** Drift thinks that maybe your system’s dragging due to an excess charge and maybe an overload or two might bleed some of that off.::_

            Magnus sent a glyph message asking Hot Rod to at least lead him off the bridge to deal with this.

            _::Lemme **blow** ya, Mags—I think an overload really will help,::_ the younger mech said, glancing up at the one he loved more than anything.

            The old soldier simply sent a glyph of affirmative—then one of apology and a separate one of affection to his young lover.   He relaxed and hoped for a full synchronization of his systems as Hot Rod knelt before him and went down on him—quite enjoying the size and shape of the armour’s own spike, which was similar to Magnus’ natural one with only a few slight modifications.

 

*      *      *      *      *

 

            After Drift cautiously landed the ship and the five members of the group reconvened by the bay doors, there was a small discussion before they would leave.  Magnus, with a fully synchronized system now, explained the situation.  He wasn’t too worried about Override, who had lived on Cybertron for a few centuries……..but he was concerned for the other three in a completely new environment.   The old soldier explained that they were here to report the situation to this Optimus Prime—then they would head to the colonies individually, to warn them of the situation.

            After fielding a few questions, then Magnus dismissed them all—and the five exited the ship, holding their hands up peaceably as a security force met them.  Magnus—nay, Ultra Magnus once more—recognized one person instantly!

            “ _Gin…..rai_ ……..?”  The old soldier whispered, static lacing his multi-layered voice.

            “Ah, you **_must_** be Ultra Magnus—only _he_ would recognize my Spark-brother’s armour,” the red-and-blue mech said with warmth in his deep voice.  “I am, or was once, Orion Pax.  Sentinel Prime gave me Ginrai’s Voyager Armour and…………. _mmm_ ………..the Matrix of Leadership reformatted it entirely, to fit my body.”

            “ _Ah_.  I see,” Ultra Magnus murmured.  “I am………obviously still………..Ultra Magnus.  These are my travel companions:  Hot Rod, Drift, Blurr and Override.”   The old soldier motioned to each member of the party in turn, as he said their names.   “I am afraid we bring you news that is not quite very positive.”

            “Come with me, Ultra Magnus.  We will see that your companions are given a good welcome,” Optimus Prime said, firmly.

            “I will need Drift to come along, so that he can explain a portion of the events,” Ultra Magnus responded, serenely.  “Override…….would you keep an eye on these two and go with the Autobots?”   He asked, gazing down at the stocky femme.

            “Sure.  I recognize a number of them from my time with Kup’s security services, so I think we’re in good hands,” Override answered, smiling up at Ultra Magnus.  “C’mon you brats, let’s go.”  She led them over to a small group of the security force and began chatting with a couple of the Cybertronians.

            Ultra Magnus went with Optimus Prime, taking Drift with him and they were followed closely by two of the Prime’s followers.   There was a white-and-black mech that went by the name of “ _Prowl_ ”, whom the old soldier believed also served on Iacon’s police force, and there was a red mech that went by the name of “ _Ironhide_ ”.   They went to a conference room in a basically renovated old building—it just happened to be where the old Council of Primes had managed Cybertron from.

            “My ward and lover, Hot Rod—he has been having dreams for months now.  Dreams of the God of Chaos, Unicron,” Ultra Magnus began, deciding that he may as well be as forthcoming as he could be for the situation.  “And when we went to Fortress to steal one of the old ships, we encountered Unicron himself.”

            “ _Why_ did you wind up on Fortress…….and _where_ have you been all this time?”  Optimus Prime asked, surprise deep in his voice.  “We could have used someone as strong as you here when Megatron attacked Iacon and slaughtered the Council.”

            Ultra Magnus hung his head with deep regret.  “What about the others?”  He asked, meaning that he wondered about the other members of the Voyager Class unit.

            “When Liege Maximo sent Megatron out to secure Fortress, he sent other powerful Decepticons out into the universe—to a few of the colonies through the spacebridge,” Optimus Prime explained.  “Liege Maximo sent three of these other strong warriors to three of the colonies, right before Sentinel and Solus destroyed the spacebridge.  Sentinel Prime was able to send Star Saber, Dai Atlus and Greatshot out in pursuit to the colonies.”

            “Do you happen to know what colonies?”  Ultra Magnus asked, curiously.  “We can assure you that it was _not_ Fortress—as Drift is from there……….nor was it Corona, where I was sent by my Prime.”

            “ _You_ are from Fortress?”  The red-and-blue Prime gasped, looking at Drift for probably the first time since they entered the room.

            “Yes…….and that’s why Magnus asked me to come with you all,” Drift answered, nodding politely at Optimus Prime.   “I was born into the Decepticons on Fortress and I ran away from them some months back.  My small speeder crashed on Corona and Magnus took me in.  But I can tell you that Megatron is on his way to Cybertron—however he is taking his time, rather than come directly here.  He plans to attack the colonies on his way back to Cybertron.”

            “If Megatron follows the colonization pattern, the first colony he _might_ come across is Root,” Ultra Magnus said in a decisive tone.  He and Drift had carefully studied the start charts and the colony layout in relationship to Cybertron.

            “Then we need to stop him,” Optimus Prime answered.

            “That may be up to you and your forces, we shall give you Root’s GPS,” the blue-white-and-red mech responded.  “We’ve taken on the mission to warn the colonies about Unicron and, peripherally, about Megatron—that way they can rally in a manner for them.”  Then Ultra Magnus incycled a deep breath.  “What about Roadblock and Black Shadow?”  He asked, as those two names from the Voyager Class unit had not yet come up in conversation.

            “Roadblock died trying to protect Sentinel and Solus while they destroyed the spacebridge.  Black Shadow never recovered from his sparkmate’s loss and simply vanished one day,” Optimus Prime answered.  “Why is it that you won’t join up with us?  Our cause is the same, is it not?”  He inquired, curiously.

            “Our small, five-person crew is not set for a military campaign,” Ultra Magnus answered, seriously.  “Drift and I are the only ones with real world combat experience.  Override may have some experience, too—I do not know what she experienced with Kup’s security agency.   However, Hot Rod and Blurr have only been in their lifetime frames for scarce a year at this point………..and while I have trained them since they were younglings around the age of two—they have never had any true combat experience.   And I am very reluctant to thrust them directly into a war they may not understand.”

            “I see,” the red-and-blue Prime responded.

            “Hot Rod’s dreams about the Chaos-Bringer have motivated us to warn the colonies,” Drift spoke up, finally.  “Our ship can get to the colonies faster than a military unit and we can help them get prepared for what is coming.   If you can go ahead to Root with the warning and try to intercept Megatron, we’ll have the time necessary to alert the other colonies.  And………I do not know how fast the Chaos-Bringer travels, but if he is at Fortress now, he may be at Root soon enough.”

            “We took this duty upon ourselves.  Drift feels Hot Rod’s destiny is somewhere along this course,” the old soldier added, his layered voice soft.  “It is possible that we might be able to join you once we’ve warned the colonies and found this destiny.”

            “Then I will settle for _that_ ,” Optimus Prime answered, nodding his head at the two.  “Ultra Magnus—will you take a recorded message from me, to give to the leaders in the colonies?  It will be a short explanation of the war—the Decepticons and the Autobots.  And it will tell them what the Autobots are standing for.”

            “Of course I will, Commander Prime,” Ultra Magnus responded.

 

*      *      *      *      *

 

            “ _Wheeljack!_    Oh, it’s so good to see you…………you crazy ol’ tinkerer!”  Override said to a white-and-grey mech, who had green-and-red race striping on his frame.  The stoic femme hugged the mech very enthusiastically.

            “ _Nitro!_    I heard you got sent to a colony!”  Wheejack gasped, happily hugging her back.

            “Yeah, _Corona_.  And I should probably tell you, my legal name is now _‘Override’_ ,” she laughed, as they held each other at a very fond arm’s length.  “But you can still call me by my birth-name if you’d like,” Override said with a warm smile.

            “Gosh, I have to say, I **_really_** like _‘Override’_ —that name really suits you!”  Wheeljack said with a grin as he squeezed her servos with his own.  Clearly the two were drawing out parting from each other as long as they could.  “What brings you back to Cybertron?  And _how_?  Oh, wait—you _probably_ came on that ship that just landed!”  He laughed, the audial kibble on the sides of his helm flashed as he spoke and his mouth was covered with a medical-style facial shield ( _not_ a warrior’s type).

            “That’s right,” Override chuckled, swinging their arms fondly.

            Blurr and Hot Rod just stood behind her, watching the interesting exchange.

            “You know, I’ve only seen my matri act like this _once_ before—with a femme she was intimate with a long while back,” Blurr whispered to Hot Rod.

            “Think these two were frag-buddies?”  Hot Rod whispered back.

            “I’d **_bet_** on it!”  Blurr chuckled softly.

            “Okay, you brats—enough gossiping,” Override grumbled, but she was still smiling at them when she said it.  “This is an old friend of mine, from here on Cybertron—Wheeljack.  He’s a scientist,” she introduced.  “Wheeljack…….this is _my_ little brat, Blurr—the other is his best friend, Hot Rod.  Both were students of mine when I was teaching at the University in Lumiere on Corona.”

            “ _D’aww_.  That’s great, Override………and it’s a pleasure to meet you boys.  So…….how come you’re here now?   I mean, I would stay in the safety of the colonies, if I were you,” Wheeljack commented, leading the small group deeper back into his lab.

            “ _Wow_.  This is _so much messier_ than I remember,” Override laughed.  “The colonies are actually in danger and we came to warn whomever was here on Cybertron—the Prime with the Matrix.”

            “ _Tch_.  That doesn’t sound good.  So, are you joining us, then?”  The scientist asked, dumping junk out of chairs for his three guests.

            “That’ll be up to Ultra Magnus, though likely not until after we’ve warned the colonies,” the femme explained, motioning to Hot Rod and Blurr to sit down and relax.

            Wheeljack chatted with the three of them, getting to especially know the two youths.  He found Hot Rod’s energy and enthusiasm endearing……….and he found Blurr’s cool attitude rather reminiscent of Prowl, when his friend had been much younger (and happier).   He had begun asking them about their combat experience………….because Wheeljack thought that even if they didn’t exactly run into the Decepticons—other colonists might be a bit hostile, since there hasn’t been any contact in a couple million years.

            “Magnus and Drift might raze a world if something happened to Hot Rod,” Blurr laughed, warmth in his young voice.  “Magnus has been training Hot Rod and I in combat since we were in our First Frames.”

            “ _Weeeeeeelll_ …….. ** _Drift_** might raze a world, but Mags would just have to loom over someone with that warning glare of his,” Hot Rod chuckled, adding his own opinion to Blurr’s statement.  “I’m a pretty good shot with an energy bow,” he added.

            “Hmm.   Not a gun?”  Wheeljack asked, curiously.

            “Outlawed on Corona—as well as any kind of edged weapon,” Override answered, firmly.  “Staves and the body are the only weapons authorized on that world.”

            “I see,” the scientist murmured.

            “I have a special ability………I have instant reflexes and upshifted speed.  ‘S why matri gave me the name— ** _nobody_** can catch me, not even her,” Blurr answered, shrugging.  Then he looked at Hot Rod and gave his best friend an encouraging nod.

            “I also have one, but……..I’m _not_ good at controlling it, yet,” the flame-colored mech murmured.  He got up out of his chair and walked to the most empty corner of the room.   Then he held his arms out and shuttered his optics to focus and concentrate.  It took a few moments for it to happen, but small swirls of fire began enveloping his forearms.  “ _Ummmm_ …..I……….I can’t turn it off too well……..” Hot Rod stammered, gritting his denta as he tried hard to do so.

            Wheeljack simply popped out of his seat, grabbing a fire extinguisher from somewhere nearby.  He sprayed it all over the flame-colored mech’s forearms  “ _Hmmm_ …….I wonder…….?  Hot Rod, what’s this piping for?”  He asked, tapping the tripled pipes on one of the younger mech’s forearms.

            “Excess exhaust ports in my alt mode,” Hot Rod answered, easily.  “Why?”

            “Well, Spark abilities are usually governed by the Spark, which means it alters your own existing system to support such an ability.  I wonder if re-routing a few charge lines to the piping would let you focus the flames a little more, there?”  Wheeljack said, carefully.  “It may not give you one-hundred percent control over your flames, but it might give you a little more control than you have now.”

            “How……..how easy is it to do that?”  Hot Rod asked, eagerness swirling in his field.

            “It’s _not_ difficult.  I could do it,” the scientist answered.  “Override could, too—since she’s a fantastic mechanic.”

            “I’m tempted to say that you should ask Ultra Magnus for permission, but he needs to understand that you are your own independent mech,” Override chuckled.  “I’ll supervise Wheejack, if you’d want him to do it……?”

            “Yeah!  Especially if it’ll stop me from overheating and bursting into flames!”  Hot Rod said, very excited by the idea.

            The procedure really _didn’t_ take very long at all.  Less than thirty minutes, total.  Wheeljack had been awed by the brilliant blue of Hot Rod’s Spark—it was such a bright blue that it was very nearly white.  He didn’t say anything, but he comm-linked a few comments to Override, who had told him that Drift felt Hot Rod had a very special destiny.   It certainly had Wheeljack intrigued.  He asked her to send him updates from their quest to warn the colonies and gave her a new, private personal message address.

            Then, with Wheeljack along for the walk, Override and the younger mechs went to the command center to meet up with Ultra Magnus and Drift.   They found the two standing with the blue-and-red mech known as Optimus Prime, the Leader of the Autobots.   They were chatting in lower voices as they waited for the group to rejoin together.

            Hot Rod felt an urge to hug both Ultra Magnus and Drift right now, but he thought it would probably be pretty weird (and maybe unwelcome) to do so in front of this cool and soft-spoken Prime.

            “Then this is where we part ways,” Optimus Prime said to Ultra Magnus.  “I hope that we can stop Megatron at the colony of Root.”  Then the Prime held a friendly blue servo out to the former soldier.

            Ultra Magnus clasped it with his own white servo.  “Until we meet again, Commander Prime,” he said, formally.

            Optimus Prime said a farewell to each of them individually.  When he came to Hot Rod, he paused……a _strange feeling_ fluttering around inside him.  Then the Leader of the Autobots put the odd feeling aside as he warmly clasped the younger mech’s grey servo.  Then he let go and turned to them all.  He gave Ultra Magnus a very formal and very polite salute.

            “Good luck to you all,” Optimus Prime said, nodding at them all.

**Author's Note:**

> Next stop, Gaea..............the planet of beast machines. :)


End file.
